Antero Garcia – A Discussion on Transforming Classrooms, Schools, and the Teaching Profession

Looking at examples of in-school engagement, Antero will engage in a discussion of ways that participatory culture can help foment critical pedagogy, civic engagement, and school turnaround.

Key Questions and Comments:

• (26:02) How much did using mobile and using technology in your work support the sort of community building of youth in your classroom?
• (28:06) A lot of what I’ve been writing lately has been trying to think through “What does critical pedagogy look like for a digital age? What is a wireless, critical pedagogy?”
• (33:01) What are you, as a teacher, engaging in? What are the ways in which learning (in school and out of school) happens today? And how can we find the commonality there?
• (41:02) What we really did was try to identify “What [opportunities] are these approaches to learning trying to provide youth and how can digital media sort of reinforce, extend, transform […] these practices?”
• (43:28) What about participatory culture, this culture shift that Antero was talking about, are there sort of new opportunities or challenges that we need to think about?
• (44:35) Can you make some bridges between the really exciting kinds of activities you’re talking about and the current conceptions and enactments of traditional academic subjects?
• (49:27) How do we pull together those organizations that, in some ways, could act civically in response and in reaction to the kinds of political structures that are creating the kinds of climates and environments in schools that make it challenging for teachers to engage in this work?
• (52:26) And I think, if we don’t provide those [technology access] opportunities in schools, I think this really speaks to ‘How do we address issues of equity across different school contexts?’
• (58:48) How do we build the case for, for instance, the use of mobile devices in the classroom?

View the Conversation
During the broadcast, the conversation also took place on Twitter using the hashtag #connectedlearning.

Guests for this webinar included:

• Ellen Middaugh
• Paul Oh
• Greg McVerry
• Antero Garcia: Antero Garcia is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles and an English teacher at a high school in South Central Los Angeles. He will join the faculty at Colorado State University this fall as an Assistant Professor in the English Department. You can Follow him on Twitter at @anterobot
• Howard Rheingold

Resources for this webinar:

• Redefining Romeo and Juliet: Reclaiming the “Ghetto”
• Blog posts by Antero within The National Writing Project’s “Digital Is” community
• Background on The Black Cloud alternate reality game
• Background on the upcoming Critical Design and Gaming (C:\DAGS) school in L.A.
• “Wanna See The Movie?”, “Be The Question” and “Smugding the Final Cut” – Lacy Manship, Digital Is
• Caine’s Arcade
• “A Fourth-Grade Service Learning Project”– Digital Is
• Digital Divide: Navigating the Digital Edge – an IJLM article by Craig Watkins
• “I Love My City: Youth as Community Problem Solvers and Creators in 21st Century Classrooms” – Digital Is
• “Empathy and Elaboration: Using 21st Century Tools to Enhance Creative Writing” – Digital Is
• “Do Our Students Have Access?” – Digital Is